(Fox News) – According to reports, America’s first female astronaut candidate who pushed for women in space but never reached its heights has died at 88. Pilot Jerrie Cobb died in Florida on March 18 following a brief illness.

In 1961, Cobb became the first woman to pass the grueling astronaut testing. Altogether, 13 women passed the arduous physical testing and became known as the Mercury 13. But NASA already had its Mercury 7 astronauts, all jet test pilots and all military men.

On this day in 1970, Apollo 13 blasted off on a mission to the moon that was disrupted when an explosion crippled the spacecraft. The three astronauts onboard consisted of James A. Lovell, Jr., John L. Swigert, Jr., and Fred W. Haise, Jr. All three managed to return safely to Earth on April 17, six days after launch.